The invention disclosed herein pertains to decoys such as are utilized by hunters, photographers, gardeners, yachtsmen, and naturalists to lure animals and fowl to a location where they are clearly in view, although sometimes decoys are used to scare away other creatures. The designers of many preexisting decoys have attempted to achieve similarity between the appearance of a live natural animal or fowl and the decoy. Some preexisting decoys are capable of being tilted or induced to bow and rise and rotate as if they are eating or keeping watch in all directions for intruders. Generally, a long string tied somewhere to the decoy is tugged and relaxed by a remotely situated person to animate the decoy. In some designs, electric motors in the decoy are energized in response to signals transmitted from a hand-held radio transmitter.
Payne et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,288 discloses a decoy resembling an animal where parts of the decoy's anatomy such as the neck, head, ears and tail are connected in a pivotable articulated manner to the main body so the body parts move in response to someone tugging on a string. The body parts are restored to a resting position as a result of being connected to the ends of rubber bands whose other ends are anchored to the body. The construction is complex and is expensive to manufacture. Moreover, its complexity and several moving parts increase the likelihood of a breakdown. Unless the string is tugged and relaxed, the decoy has little advantage over a completely rigid molded decoy body.
McKinney U.S. Pat. No. 4,965,953 discloses a fowl decoy whose body is pivotally connected to a stand and whose neck and body are connected together with a mechanism including tension strings. The mechanism is complex and must be installed in the body of the fowl by an assembler. A string tied to the mechanism is tugged and relaxed by a remotely positioned person who can easily become bored after a short period of pulling on the string. If pulling the string is discontinued, the decoy just stands there locking like any other single piece unanimated decoy.
Heiges U.S. Pat. No. 5,279,063 discloses a decoy simulating a fowl having a neck fastened at one end to a ball that is set in the decoy body for universal movement and at its other end fastened to a rotatably mounted head of the fowl. The neck is comprised of a long multiple turn tightly would helical spring with a plastic sheet around it. The construction is costly and complex. The head and neck must be manipulated relative to the body.
Lanius U.S. Pat. No. 5,274,942 has the head and neck of a fowl decoy pivotally connected to its body. A cord is attached to the head of the decoy and the cord has a weight fastened to it which tends to restore the neck of the decoy to an upright attitude from a downward attitude by having a string attached to the weight for a person situated remotely to tug on a string to cause the neck and head to bow. When the string tension is relieved a weight restores the neck and head to an upright attitude.
Denny U.S. Pat. No. 5,289,654 discloses a wild fowl decoy such as a turkey whose body contains electric motors that are operatively coupled to the head and neck, respectively, of the fowl. The motors are actuated by electric signals resulting from receiving radio signals from a remote transmitter.
The decoys just briefly described all have unnecessarily complex mechanisms for imparting motion to a decoy body or parts thereof. This complexity increases the likelihood of a breakdown in the mechanism driving the decoy and, of course, results in a high production cost and high purchase price. This is important to hunters, in particular, since they frequently like to use several decoys at a single site on the theory that crowds attract crowds. Thus, a simplified low cost decoy is highly desirable.